Local History Collections

This collection was donated to the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in 2013 by Sandra Zenser.

Biographical Sketch

Charles Reid was born on 13 July 1813 in Aberdeen, Scotland to Alexander and Catherine Reid. He came to the United States by the way of London, Ontario, Canada before settling in the Lower Sandusky area (now Fremont, Ohio). Charles went into business for himself, building a large cooper shop that employed several coopers and produced hundreds of barrels a day. The barrels were used to store flour, corn, fish, meats, sugar, butter and tobacco, among other products.

He married Susanna (Susanah) Glaze, the daughter of Adam and Rachel Glaze, on 10 January 1842 in Lower Sandusky (now Fremont, Ohio). Charles and Susanna had twelve children born to this union: Catherine McFarland; Alexander; Rachel Harbert; Susannah Trimmons; Charles; Elizabeth; John; James; Margaret Teeter; Mary Gibson; William and Emmaline Thompson. After managing his cooper shop for several years, Charles sold the business and moved the family westward in 1850 to become a farmer. They finally settled in Cass Township, White County, Indiana on one hundred and sixty acres of land.

Charles Reid died on 6 February 1887 and is buried in a Catholic cemetery near Pulaski, Indiana.

Scope and Content

This artificial collection is made up of photocopies from the original ledger, spanning the years of 1844 – 1860. The ledger is approximately 270 pages in length and records the business sales of Charles Reid while in Ballville Township, Sandusky County, Ohio. The fifteen year period provides a partial account of Sandusky County businesses and residents. Some of his frequent customers were; Crogan Mills, C.J. Pettibon(e), Albert Pelton, Samuel Decker, P.W. Marsh, W.J. Brown and L.D. Miller. Laid into the back of the ledger are several letters from a son who served in the Civil War.